An overview
of the demographics, economics and trends associated with activities in state
parks and national parks in South Carolina and the United States.

Published by the Marketing Office of the South Carolina
Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Columbia, SC, in order
to support the development and operation of tourism and recreation businesses.

Economics
of National and State Parks

In the year 2000 total visitation to the 84
million acres of the United States National Park Service system exceeded 430
million visits.Similarly, the 12.7
million acres of state parks in America attracted total
visitation of over 767 million visits in 2000.State parks, national parks, and similar protected areas benefit
citizens and natural and cultural resources alike.These parks take on increasing importance
each year as other tracts of forests, farms and range land constantly disappear
for urban and surburban uses.While park
attendance continues to grow steadily, especially among state parks, overall
park budgets have fallen substantially since 1980, causing park managers to
turn to various user fees and park amenity partnerships to continue their
levels of service.By the numbers, park
systems constitute big business in nearly every state of the union.

Parks
Visitation in South Carolina

TravelScope, the national
travel survey coordinated by the U.S. Travel Data Center, collects data on
tourists who travel for tourism, including visiting state and national
parks.According to TravelScope, almost 1.5 million tourists
visited the state and national park system in South Carolina.This number includes only visitors who
traveled 50 miles or more one way or overnight (which eliminates most local or
residential visitors). They stayed an average of 4 nights, spent an average of
$404, and typically had 2-3 members in their travel party.

Also according to TravelScope, April and May tie as the most popular
visitation months to South Carolina parks,
followed by August, July and September.Thirty-three percent of the travel parties were primarily in the state
for recreation and entertainment, while another 28% were also visiting friends
and relatives.In addition to their
activities at the parks, the visitors enjoyed history and museum activities,
shopping, beach and lake activities, and hunting, fishing and hiking.

Charleston was the most
frequently visited destination by park visitors, followed by Myrtle Beach.Over one-fourth of the state’s park visitors
are South Carolina residents,
although sizeable numbers also originate from North
Carolina, Florida, Georgia and New York.

The median age of the head of household of a
park visitor travel party in South Carolina is 47.The median household income is
$42,500-$44,999.Seven percent of the
park visitor parties are African-American.Eighty-four percent travel by car.Lodging is well-distributed among hotels, condos and time shares, RVs
and campers and tents, and other lodging such as staying with friends or
relatives.

National
Demographics for Park Visitors

At the U.S. level, the TravelScope data reveals that nearly 81
million Americans visited state or national parks somewhere in the
country.They stayed an average of 4-5
nights, spent an average of $656, and had an average party size of 2-3.

Nationally, July was the most popular month
for visiting parks nationwide, followed by August, June, May and
September.Most travelers are in the
vicinity of the park purely for purposes of recreation and entertainment, or
else to visit friends and relatives.In
addition to the park activities, they also enjoy history and museum activities,
shopping, and hunting/fishing/hiking.

Park visitation is well-distributed across
the country.The top destination states
for park tourism are California (10%), Arizona (5%), Florida (4%) and Colorado (4%).However, the largest number of park visitors
also originates in California, followed by Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois.

The median age of the head of household of a
park visitor party in the U.S. is 43.The median household income is
$45,000-$47,499.Only 3% of park visitor
parties nationally are African-American.A notable 27% of the nation’s park visitors travel by air to their park
destination, while 67% drive.Less than
half stay in hotels at their destination.

State Park
Visitation

Data for 2000 from the National Association
of State Park Directors (NASPD) shows that South Carolina State Parks received
a total of 9,563,510 visitors (both residents and tourists) in 2000, including
1,301,634 who stayed overnight and 8,261,876 who visited a state park on a day
trip.South
Carolina’s State Park system ranks
23rd in the nation in visitation.California’s state parks
are the most popular with nearly 77 million visitors.

According to the StateParkInformationResourcesCenter at IndianaUniversity, in 1999 South
Carolina administered 58 park areas,
encompassing 81,572 acres.South
Carolina State Parks generated over $15 million in revenue, compared to the
$1.8 million in capital expenditures reportedly spent on them.

State parks are more popular than national
parks but not as popular as Forest Service areas.In a study of total visitation to state
parks, national parks, Forest Service areas, national wildlife refuges and
similar sites, state parks accounted for 29.47% of the total visitor days.USDA Forest Service areas received the most
visitation at 33.82%, followed by Corps of Engineers sites with 15.03% and
National Park Service areas with 11.75%.

According to the Spring 2001 South Carolina
State Survey, 56% of the residents interviewed had visited a state park in the
previous 12 months, including 60% of the males, 54% of the females, 51% of the
African-Americans, and 59% of the whites.Age, education and income had noticeable effects on park
visitation.Sixty-five percent of
residents age 18-45 visited parks, dropping to 32% for the 65+ group.Interest is also highest among college
graduates at 64% and among higher income groups ($50,000 and more) at
68.5%.Interest is well-distributed
among urban (56%), suburban (57%) and rural residents (58%), and it ranges from
59% among Upstate residents, to 56.5% in the Midlands and 52% in the
Lowcountry.

The State Survey revealed that SesquicentennialState Park in Columbia was the most
popular among survey respondents, followed by Myrtle BeachState Park, SanteeState Park, and TableRockState Park.In general, park visitors average 5.2 visits
each.Attendance figures collected by
the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism show that the
parks with the highest attendance are Myrtle Beach with over 1 million visitors
yearly, Kings Mountain, Table Rock, Hunting Island, Huntington Beach, Santee
and Hickory Knob.

The top ten reasons for visiting a South
CarolinaState Park include:
picnics and cookouts, family gatherings and outings, walking, unspecified
recreation, camping, nature appreciation, relaxation, fishing, hiking and
sightseeing.

National
Park Visitation

The National Park System attracted nearly 286
million recreation visits in 2000, nearly 144 million non-recreation visits,
3.4 million tent campers, 2.5 million RV campers, 1.9 million backpackers, and
4.6 million visitors who stayed in concessioner lodging.Overall, in 2000 the NPS administered 84 million
acres (78 million in Federal land), comprising 382 sites.The NPS reports that its most popular
visitation months are July, August and June, followed by May, September,
October and April.

National park system units go by numerous
designations, all with equal legal standing—national parks, national monuments,
national preserves, national rivers, national battlefields, national trails,
and so on.

The national parks of the Southeast are the
most visited in the country, thanks in part to the ongoing popularity of the Great Smoky
Mountains and the Blue Ridge
Parkway.When visits to the adjacent District of
Columbia national parks are added in, the combined area attracts one in three
national park visitors.In general,
Southeast national park visitation was down 2% from 1999 to 2000.

The National Park Service reports that
937,000 visitors traveled to National Park Service areas in South
Carolina in 2000, up 6% from the
year before.The six areas maintained in
South Carolina by the NPS
include:

·FortSumterNaitonalMonument.319,147 visitors in 2000, up 6%, 144th
most visited NPS area, visitation has declined since 345,345 in 1994.

·Ninety Six National Historic
Site.28,492 visitors in 2000, up 2%,
declining attendance predicted

·Charles Pinckney National
Historic Site.24,055 visitors in 2000,
down 25% from previous year, up from 11,000 in 1995, relatively new site.

Except for the CongareeSwamp, the NPS
properties in South Carolina are very small
in acreage.The larger parks with more
roaming space and a variety of features tend to draw better attendance.For example, the Blue Ridge
Parkway, the nation’s #1 NPS site,
has over 81,000 acres and attracts 11,874,910 visitors annually to North
Carolina alone; millions more travel
the Virginia section.In addition, none of the South
Carolina sites accommodate overnight
stays, and in many parks, lodging helps boost attendance and longer stays.

Building a TourismPark Industry

National and state park visitors want these
priorities from their local hosts:

·Information, including
campgrounds, parks, trails, guides to special formations, site histories, and
up-to-date checklists with wildlife abundance information.

·Address the special needs of
the RV crowd, including a list of places where RVs can be repaired.

·Host information sessions
and field trips for local officials on the importance of the park system and
nearby parks of interest.

·Provide marketing tie-ins to
current news events.For instance, the
release of The Patriot movie was
a time to highlight Revolutionary War parks in South
Carolina, just as the Hunley
excavation brings renewed interest in FortSumter and CharlestonHarbor.

In addition to the above sources, selected South Carolina and United
States visitation, demographic and travel characteristics were obtained from
profiles of visitors compiled by South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation
and Tourism's Office of Tourism Marketing from TravelScope,
a national travel survey coordinated by the U.S. Travel Data Center.TravelScope
is based on a monthly sample of 20,000 U.S.
households selected from NFO Research Inc.'s consumer mail panel of 450,000
households.Respondents record details
of up to three trips of 50 miles or more one-way or overnight in the previous
month.Responses are sample-balanced to
match the US
population.To enhance the sample size,
analysis is based on two years of data, and there is a margin of error
associated with the reported statistics due to sampling variability.